Klaus Schwab resigned from the World Economic Forum in 2025

Meet Klaus Schwab, the founder and driving force behind Davos

Klaus Schwab founded the World Economic Forum in 1971 and spent five decades promoting stakeholder capitalism and cross-sector cooperation among elites. Under his leadership, Davos became a hub for global power brokers. Schwab stepped down from the role in April 2025 amid accusations of misconduct.

See who attended Davos 2025

Each year, Davos draws one of the most exclusive guest lists in the world. In 2025, attendees included 60 heads of state, over 900 CEOs and corporate chairs, and top leaders from global civil society, who gathered in the Swiss Alps.

The World Economic Forum works year-round

Beyond its annual Davos meeting, the World Economic Forum operates year-round through 11 centers that convene governments, corporations, and experts to coordinate initiatives around topics such as AI, cybersecurity, energy, climate change, health, finance, trade, geopolitics, and emerging technologies.

Read the WEF’s Global Risks Report for 2025

The Global Risks Report is the World Economic Forum’s annual assessment of the most pressing threats facing the world. The 2025 edition highlights declining global optimism, deepening geopolitical and economic tensions, and rising social fragmentation across societies.

A Wall Street Journal podcast examines allegations inside the WEF

In this episode of "The Journal," WSJ reporter Shalini Ramachandran investigates claims from current and former employees that the organization behind Davos fostered a toxic workplace, sparked by an anonymous whistleblower letter in 2025 and internal accounts.

Read about why Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO in 2024 only to return in 2025

When Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO in 2024, assuming an executive chair role, she said she was eager to return to her "founder roots" and do more big-picture thinking. However, when her replacement as CEO, the former Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, left the company "for personal reasons," Wolfe Herd once again assumed the CEO role. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Ray Dalio officially left Bridgewater Associates in late 2025

In 2017, Ray Dalio began a multiyear transition out of his leadership role at his company. He officially left his role as cochief investment officer and ended his tenure as the board chair in 2022 at 72 years old. How much Dalio made in the selloff of his Bridgewater equity in November 2025 isn't publicly known, but Forbes estimated his net worth to be $15.4B as of early 2026.

The World Bank, IMF, and WTO all face calls for structural reform

Researchers argue that all three major institutions face legitimacy and effectiveness challenges, including outdated governance structures, unequal voting power, and difficulty adapting to a more multipolar world.

Warren Buffett retired at the age of 95

Buffett said that he would pull back from his day-to-day role leading Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025. This long-form retrospective on his career paints him as an increasingly unique American role model.

Steve Bannon was made CEO of the company in charge of Biosphere 2 in 1994

After providing $200M to launch and upgrade B2 before its second mission, billionaire philanthropist Ed Bass appointed the future political strategist and then financial consultant to help find new investments and bring costs under control. Fearing interference from non-science experts, Biospherians from the first mission vandalized the project.

More than half of family offices have succession plans in place

The UBS annual report on family offices found that its clients are preparing for trade wars, generative AI, and generational wealth transfers.

Norway operates the largest SWF in the world—managing more than $2T in assets

The fund is considered the gold standard SWF because of its transparency around investments, politically independent governance, and strong ethical boundaries that serve as the backbone of the investment philosophy. For example, fund managers will not invest in coal, tobacco, or nuclear weapons, because these investments are considered harmful to humanity.

How the Trump administration explained the firing of the NSF's National Science Board

The White House argued that the April 24, 2026, decision resulted from the 2021 US v. Arthrex Supreme Court ruling, which "set limits on the powers of executive branch officials who are not Senate-confirmed" and therefore conflicts with the law that created the NSB. As of May 2026, the administration has yet to explain its next steps for the advisory arm of the National Science Foundation, which has lost about a third of its staff since the start of 2025.

Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO, didn't believe in its ad model at first

He admits the company made many mistakes during its growth from 100 Google employees to nearly 200,000 in 2022. His biggest mistake as CEO involved social media, which was not executed well with the Google+ platform.

In 2015, FIFA's decades-old bribery network was exposed

In 2015, the US Department of Justice exposed a 24-year bribery network influencing broadcast rights and votes on World Cup host cities. Over 40 officials were indicted for accepting bribes. FIFA implemented several reforms, including term limits for presidents and council members and salary disclosures in 2016.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Fallingwater revived Frank Lloyd Wright’s career at age 67

A series of scandals and financial setbacks made Wright lose his previous relevance, leaving the public to view him as a “has-been.” Following the creation of Fallingwater, a masterpiece set atop a waterfall, Wright saw an uptick in commissions and continued to produce inspired buildings at an age that many others would retire by.

Some chefs relinquish their Michelin stars

Five years after Marco Pierre White became the youngest chef to ever achieve a three-star rating, he also became the first chef to “return” his stars and retire. Since then, multiple chefs have followed in his footsteps and requested to be removed from the judging process.

Cofounder Gavin Wood said Ethereum is going nowhere

Ethereum’s other cofounder, and the person known for coining the term “Web3,” Gavin Wood, ended his direct involvement with Ethereum in 2016. After that, he founded Polkadot with the aim of resolving the issues he saw with Ethereum. In this podcast, Wood says he thinks Ethereum is a financial success but that its progress has stalled. He also talks about hopes he had for the platform that have yet to be realized.

See all 16 Fed Chairs ranked by stock market performance

Sixteen people have held the office of Fed Chair since 1913, with varying results. From the Fed’s first leader, Charles Hamlin, to Jerome Powell, see in a ranked list how stocks fared for each chair within distinct macroeconomic conditions.

Hitler died by suicide on April 30, 1945

Adolf Hitler, facing imminent defeat as Soviet troops closed in on Berlin, killed himself in a final act of cowardice—by gunshot and cyanide—alongside his wife Eva Braun in his Führerbunker on April 30, 1945. Their bodies were doused in petrol and burned in the Chancellery garden.

The United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945

The 1945 San Francisco Conference brought together delegates from 50 nations to draft the United Nations Charter, laying the foundation for the UN. This archival footage from the UN captures the event's atmosphere, showcasing firsthand reactions and the global hope for peace after World War II.

David Ogilvy once called WPP Founder Martin Sorrell ‘odious’

WPP acquired Ogilvy & Mather, David Ogilvy’s agency, in 1989. Ogilvy later offered Sorrell a rare apology letter, which Sorrell kept framed in his office.

Switzerland's currency is so strong that it could cause deflation

Economic instability in the United States in 2025 strongly benefited Switzerland, where the value of the franc relative to the dollar increased by about 12.7%. In response, the price of imports dramatically decreased, making goods overall much cheaper.

Meta disclosed Mark Zuckerberg's interest in martial arts as an investment risk

During the pandemic, Zuckerberg began practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even won gold and silver medals at his first tournament in 2023. His interest in martial arts and water sports, like wakesurfing and hydrofoiling, prompted the company to disclose those hobbies as risks for potential investors, given they pose a threat to Zuckerberg's health and he retains a significant amount of control over Meta.

Sears failed to evolve in a changing economy

At its peak, Sears was the largest retailer in the world, making elite objects accessible to the middle class. But in 2018, the company officially filed for bankruptcy due to massive debt and losses.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.